Lower Saxony
© Lonely Planet Publications 592 lonelyplanet.com LOWER SAXONY •• Hanover 593 HANOVER city centre. The centre contains one of the %0511 / pop 515,800 largest pedestrianised areas in Germany, Lower Saxony Hanover gets a bad rap. Local comedians focusing on Georgstrasse and Bahnhof- dismiss it as ‘the Autobahn exit between strasse. Bahnhofstrasse heads southwest Göttingen and Walsrode’. News magazine from the Hauptbahnhof, and Georgstrasse Der Spiegel has written it off as having ‘the runs west–east from Steintor via the Kröpcke most boring parties’, and the rest of the world square to Georgsplatz. There’s a subterra- knows it as the host of the not particularly nean shopping strip running below Bahn- Confusingly, Lower Saxony lies in the north and evinces the sort of character opinion pollsters sexy CeBit communications trade show. hofstrasse, from the Hauptbahnhof to just would describe as ‘Middle Germany’. Yes, Niedersachsen, as it’s called in German, lacks the However, things aren’t really so grim up south of Kröpcke, called the Niki de Saint big set-piece or bold image of some fellow states, but that doesn’t make it uninteresting. north in Lower Saxony’s state capital. The Phalle Promenade. Instead, it presents a mosaic, a panoply, a potpourri. With an array of wildly different attrac- city also boasts acres of greenery. Its ba- The Herrenhäuser Gärten are situated LOWER SAXONY tions, visitors can certainly mix it up in Germany’s second biggest state: steer a Volkswagen roque Herrenhäuser Gärten (gardens) are about 4km northwest of the city centre. The a mini-Versailles, featuring a sparkly Niki Messegelände, the main trade fairgrounds, over an obstacle course in Wolfsburg’s Autostadt theme park, smell the roses in Hanover’s de Saint Phalle Grotto.
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